Public campaign against texting and driving announced today at UAB. (FILE photo)

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- The driver was going less than the speed limit, keeping it between the lanes. But then the texts started coming, and the driving rapidly deteriorated.

It wasn't real. It was a driving simulator. But it was nerve-wracking trying to keep the car on the road and answer just one of the flurry of texts coming in on a smart phone attached to the simulator by a cord.

In the end, Jonathan Saigeon, playing traffic cop, wrote this reporter a ticket for impeding traffic, swerving, crossing the center line, reckless driving and driving on the median.

"Well at least you didn't kill anyone," Saigeon said.

Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange looked on in amusement.

Strange was there, at UAB Campus Recreation Center, today to announce an unusual partnership with the company U-Haul, the state and the University of Alabama at Birmingham to get the word out on the dangers of texting and driving.

The collaborative public awareness campaign is called "Arrive Alive: Stop the Texts, Stop the Wrecks."

Strange said he believes it is the first such effort in the country.

"Texting while driving is a huge problem in this state," Strange said, after he quit chuckling over the reporter's driving performance. "It's a pet peeve of mind. I travel all over this state and see people driving distracted everywhere I go."

Strange praised state legislators for passing a law last year against texting and driving.

"If I had a dollar for every time I saw someone texting and driving, I'd absolutely be able to retire," Strange said.

U-Haul set up the driving simulators for the public today at the recreation center until 4 p.m. to give a hands-on feel of just how distracting texting and driving can be.

U-Haul brings to the campaign an ongoing tour in the U.S. and overseas with these machines on what they call the "Save-A-Life Tour, Distracted Driving Program." Saigeon, the driving simulator traffic cop, was with the tour.

"U-Haul has a long history of safety," Stuart Shoen, executive vice president of the company founded by his grandfather told the group of about 40 who assembled at the beginning of the day's events. "We don't put cruise control on our trucks because we don't want people falling asleep at the wheel."

UAB injury prevention researcher Despina Stavrinos said half a million people are injured every year in distracted driving incidents, and many thousands killed.

Distracted driving is more than just texting, it is "anything that takes your eyes off the road, your hands off the wheel and most importantly, your mind of what you are doing."

Putting on make-up, eating, worrying about a pet in the car -- all can be considered distracted driving.

But texting is the worst kind of distraction in that it usually involves all three of the criteria -- hands, eyes and mind, she said.

Stavrinos said texting is ubiquitous and seductive. Everybody thinks its dangerous, but many believe it is dangerous only when others do it -- not themselves.

"When you drive distracted and nothing happens, it builds a false sense of security," said Stavrinos, director of the Translational Research for Injury Prevention Laboratory. "Your life is much more worth it than a text message."

Lest anyone need to be reminded of the seriousness of the message, Stavrinos pointed to a casket conspicuously placed up front with a sign on it: "Reserved for the next Distracted Driving Victim."